Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on the budget talks earlier today: “Everything is on the table; everything is being discussed, everything is on the table.” No bills yet. But that doesn’t really mean anything. A lot of that bill language is pretty redundant. They can get started with the printing of the less-controversial stuff tomorrow, just …

The unauthorized video of Rent Stabilization Association President Joe Strasburg speaking to a group in Brooklyn earlier this week turns out to be a treasure trove of information when it comes to understanding the politics of the rent control battle in Albany this year. As you’ll recall, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos took a hard …

Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a very mixed reception at commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire this afternoon in the West Village.
Although the mayor was greeted with a smattering of applause, he was booed and… …

Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, Schenectady County, emerged from a closed-door Senate Republican conference to say that at about $270 million has been restored to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $1.5 billion cut to education aid. Seventy-percent of that aid would go to upstate districts, Farley said. “They’re going to try to take care of certain areas […] …

While we’re all waiting for something to break on the budget front…Several readers have forwarded an e-mail former Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei sent to supporters earlier today, confirming that he is indeed mulling a challenge to GOP Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, who ousted him from his NY-25 seat in a squeaker last fall. “I have …

After a press conference on Pell Grants this morning–in which he declared “evil” the Republican proposals to cut them–Senator Charles Schumer reiterated his support for a Libyan campaign that is “limited in scope and in time.”

ICYMI: Sen. Liz Krueger, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee (thanks to Sen. Carl Kruger’s legal troubles) told me during a CapTon interview that she’ll have trouble voting “yes” on a budget that doesn’t include rent control, and believes a number of her colleagues feel the same way. Of course, that seems at …